Do you know which cities are the most “well-read” in Britain and America?
Earlier this year Amazon conducted their third annual survey to discover which city is the national reading champion. Oddly enough I once spent an afternoon in the American winner – … Continue reading
READING LIKE A WRITER – putting rhythm into prose
“Words have music and if you are a musician you will write to hear them” – E.L. Doctorow Rhythm isn’t the sole preserve of poets or musicians – prose writers … Continue reading
Quotes for Writers (and people who like quotes) William Salfire on cliches, superlatives and other misdemeanours
Do not put statements in the negative form. And don’t start sentences with a conjunction. If you reread your work, you will find on rereading that a great deal of … Continue reading
Safari Saturday: searching the web for writers and readers — a free library for the world
Many of you will already know about and use Project Gutenberg, but some things can’t be mentioned too often and this is one of them. History It began on 4th … Continue reading
I’m not being rude, but it would be lovely if you went away right now…
…oh, no! Wait, maybe I could have phrased that better, damn words getting in the wrong place. All I was hoping is that you would pop over and read my … Continue reading
I’m not sure I can define romantic, but I’m pretty sure this isn’t it…
Romance originally meant a story about a dashing hero written in French. As those stories often revolved around unrequited love, adoration from afar and secret trysts (what a nice word) … Continue reading
READING LIKE A WRITER – flashbacks
Flashbacks in literature are scenes within the chronological narrative that reveal events before the story began. In a novel the ‘now’ of the story might be about two old friends … Continue reading
Quotes for Writers (and people who like quotes) Philip Pullman on what back to basics really means
We often hear politicians talks about the basics, by which they mean the ability to spell correctly and write grammatically. But that’s not basic at all. You can correct that … Continue reading
Coming soon BACK TO CREATIVE WRITING SCHOOL ebook
I’m very excited about the cover. I think the designer did a brilliant job. I’m very excited that it will be out in a couple of weeks – publication date … Continue reading
Probably shouldn’t be saying this….
I should probably pretend that this idyllic Brighton writers’ room doesn’t exist and that it isn’t run by two great writers with best selling books to their credit. I should … Continue reading
Writers need talent and a thick skin – Donal Ryan calls himself a model for stubbornness
Donal Ryan emailed to thank me for my post yesterday about the 47 rejections he endured before his first novel The Spinning Heart was finally accepted by The Lilliput Press. … Continue reading
“It’s all down to luck…but the harder I work the luckier I get”
Today is the day they will announce the winner of the 2013 Booker Prize (as I write Jim Crace seems to be the favourite with Colm Toibin a close second), … Continue reading
READING LIKE A WRITER – how did they do that?
This is part of my new look Mondays. For about a year I have posted creative writing exercises at the start of the week (you can find a small selection … Continue reading
Quotes for writers (and people who like quotes) ALICE MUNRO
There are no such things as big and little subjects. The major things, the evils, that exist in the world have a direct relationship to the evil that exists around … Continue reading
